Pure Childlike Joy

This week, I had the opportunity to assist with teaching a kid’s yoga camp. I am learning so much by watching these little humans take to yoga and their unabashed love for it!

They just…GET it.

I can’t explain it in words here, but I know that somewhere along the way, I lost my ability to dive headfirst into a handstand or not worry about falling over in tree pose. I had started to lose my ability to smile during my personal home practice, even though I was encouraging others to do it on their mat. I was beginning to find…not so long ago…that yoga was very…serious…business.

When I went to my yoga teacher training, the chance to rediscover childlike joy when practicing was presented to me. I took tentative steps at first into the wading pool and eventually found myself doing belly flops off the high dive. I was going for poses I never tried before, even catching a bruise or two in the process (ever mastered the face-plant when perfecting side crow? I have!). But, I was doing it all with this big, silly grin on my face…not caring if I stayed in the pose for five breaths, but rather focusing on the pure joy I was feeling in my practice.

That’s what I’m seeing this week as I practice with the youth from our community. They see a pose and they go for it…all out. They have huge smiles on their faces and when they are in Warrior II, they tell us they feel strong. They aren’t saying that because a teacher told them they would or because they read it somewhere, but because they actually feel it in their muscles, bones, heart and soul.

They are teaching me to unfurrow my brow and pull the corners of my mouth up. To laugh when I fall out of Warrior III and clap for someone else when they do something amazing. They are teaching me to trust myself and my instincts and that nothing…nothing…is more important than having fun.

So, for the rest of this week and into all the weeks ahead of us…let’s play.